


What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger

by thoughtsfromaclutteredbrain



Series: Karamel Prompts/Requests [3]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/M, Kara POV, Kara gets injured and tries to hide it, KaraMel, POV Kara Danvers, but of course Mon El notices, some descriptions of a bloody cut, this one isn't fluffy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-14
Updated: 2018-02-14
Packaged: 2019-03-18 09:38:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13679073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thoughtsfromaclutteredbrain/pseuds/thoughtsfromaclutteredbrain
Summary: During what Kara thought would be an easy mission, she ends up getting injured, and she doesn’t want anyone to know. But of course, Mon El notices and helps her.[based off a request I got on Tumblr]





	What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger

**Author's Note:**

> This doesn’t follow any sort of canon, but I would place it between episodes 3x11 and 3x12 in terms of the canon. This fic ended up being a lot longer than I meant for it to be, and it’s not quite what was asked, but I hope you enjoy anyway!

_Where did he get Kryptonite from?_

That was the question circling through Kara's mind as she recalled her last mission. Between all of the chaos that Reign and the hunt for the other Worldkillers was bringing her, she had been almost relieved when she heard that there was an armed robbery that needed her attention. It would definitely be a whole lot easier than dealing with Kryptonians hell-bent on bringing the world to its knees. 

She had known that this bank would be a target when Alex had informed her that it was the location where her and J'onn had tried to take down Reign while she was in her coma. The failed mission had caused major damage to the bank, and therefore the security was very much compromised. She had almost been happy when she flew in to stop the robbers. She thought it would be easy. 

And it would have been, if she hadn't gotten nauseous as soon as she got within three feet of the guy. She stumbled, and both her and the robber seemed surprised. 

She had attempted to fight through it, of course, but it was hard. Kara eventually knocked the guy to the ground, but it didn't seem like she was at full strength, because he got back up almost immediately. She had seen something green drop out of his pocket, but honestly the thought of the guy having Kryptonite on him was so farfetched to her that she didn't even think to consider it. But when the robber managed to hit her to the ground, and her leg was cut by the shard of Kryptonite, she knew that she was in trouble. 

She was lucky that Alex and her task force had shown up at that moment. If not, he may have actually gotten away, and the thought of that sickened Kara almost as much as the Kryptonite. 

So here she was, at the DEO with a huge scratch on her left thigh from the Kryptonite, but she was the only one who knew. She had managed to get away from the crime scene without Alex noticing, giving the lame excuse that she was needed at CatCo before flying away. What Alex didn't know, however, was that she had only flew a couple of feet before she collapsed. 

Once she had finally made her way home, she had been able to change into her "Kara Danvers" clothes, not only discarding of the Supergirl costume but changing into slacks that would hide the gash, before making her way back to the DEO. 

She knew that Winn was talking to her and the team, but she couldn't bring herself to hear any of it. She was too busy leaning on the circular table in the middle of the DEO, trying her hardest not to cry out from the ever-present burning sensation in her leg and trying not to wince in pain. 

Kara knew that it was stupid, but she didn't want any of them knowing about her injury. She had just been in a coma thanks to Reign, and with the discovery of other Worldkillers out there, she couldn't bring herself to sit on the sidelines. Hell, she had put herself into harm's way immediately after waking up from her coma. Nothing was more important to her than stopping Reign, not even her own health. 

Kara figured that the robber must have been at the bank when J'onn and Alex had tried to capture Reign. He was probably there to scout out the location before he robbed it. There had been Kryptonite present, and he probably couldn't help himself from getting his hands on some. He probably didn't even know what it did. 

She so desperately wished that she could just ask Winn to confirm that theory. She knew all she had to do was tell him, and he could probably ping the guy's phone or something and see if he was there. But she couldn't do that because she didn't want anyone knowing about her injury, and if she told Winn, everyone would know within the hour.

She was shaken out of her thoughts by Mon El calling her name, and only then did she notice that everyone was looking at her. "Huh?" she asked. 

"I was asking you a question," Winn responded, sounding unsure of himself. 

"Oh. I'm sorry." She avoided eye contact with the other agents while she answered Winn's question, but she could feel Mon El's eyes on her, watching her carefully. 

After a couple more minutes of talking and pretending to be okay, the group broke up. Winn went back to trying to track Reign and possibly the other Worldkillers, Alex had a practice to go to, and J'onn was busy running the DEO and making sure everyone was doing their jobs. She was thankful for their distracted states as she slowly started walking out of the DEO, trying her hardest to hide her limp but failing miserably. Every step felt like lightning was being shot through her body, and her body was as tired as it had ever felt.

"Hey," she heard Mon El call behind her, jogging towards her.

Kara closed her eyes, taking deep breaths. _Does he have nothing better to do?_ She couldn't help thinking. She swore that he was lingering around every corner these days.

"Hi," she responded once he had caught up to her, trying not to speak through gritted teeth. She rested all of her weight on her good leg and crossed her arms, hoping that she looked more annoyed than in pain. 

There was a beat of awkward silence, where it looked like Mon El was trying to figure out what he wanted to say, but he eventually broke it. 

"Are you okay?" he asked. "You've seemed off ever since you got back from that robbery."

She felt herself about to sigh, but she held her poker face instead. "I'm fine," she responded, but even she could hear how clipped her words sounded. 

Her words seemed to worry Mon El more, if that was possible. "Are you sure?" he pressed. "Cuz if you're not..."

"Mon El," she started, cutting him off. She just wanted this conversation to be over. "I appreciate you looking out for me, but I'm fine."

She had had enough of this. She started trying to walk away from him as normally as possible, but she only got three steps before he spoke up again. 

"I've never seen you do that."

Kara turned around, confusion written on her face. "What?"

He closed the distance between them as he spoke. "Limp. I've never seen you limp before." She saw him scanning her face, trying to figure out what was wrong with her, and she willed herself not to give him any hints. 

"Don't lie to me, Kara. Something's wrong with you." His words were soft and tender, and they chipped away at her resolve without him even knowing it.

Because she was so tired of pretending. Pretending that the thought of the Worldkillers didn't make her feel more helpless than she thought possible. Pretending that this whole situation between her and Mon El wasn't killing her inside. Pretending that she wasn't hurt by the damn Kryptonite, or by _anything_.

She was just tired of it all. She sighed and rolled her eyes, before gesturing for Mon El to follow her somewhere private to talk. She hated that she stumbled a little as she tried to walk, but she hated even more how Mon El caught her, holding onto her and helping her walk.

And on top of that, she hated how her heart jumped when he touched her. 

He led her into the med bay, which isn't where she was planning on going, but of course that's where they ended up. She really did appreciate how much he seemed to be worrying about her well-being, despite everything, but she couldn't have that now. Not while Reign was still out there. 

Once they were in the med bay, she sat down on one of the empty beds, taking her weight off of her injured leg. "Yesterday, during the mission, there..." she closed her eyes, not believing that out of all people, she was about to tell _Mon El_. If this had been a couple of months ago, she would have had no problem telling him. But now, something felt strange about trusting him with this. It felt too... too _normal_ , and even though they were in the process of mending their relationship, it still didn't feel right. "There was a robber... and he had Kryptonite."

Mon El tensed up at the word, and she knew immediately why. He was flashing back to that time in the Fortress of Solitude, when his mother had stabbed her with her Kryptonite daggers. She couldn't help but feel a pang in her heart thinking about it. Things were so different then. 

Despite looking like he wanted to say something, Mon El stayed quiet. Kara was grateful for that. "He had Kryptonite and... I got scratched by it." She saw his eyes widen, and she quickly kept talking, waving her hands in front of her. "It's nothing. It's over, so..."

But she could tell that Mon El did not believe her. "Where?" he asked, and she didn't miss the note of fear in his voice. "Can you... can you show me?"

That was the absolute last thing she wanted to do, but she could tell that he wasn't going to drop this. "Mon El..." she started, but her words were cut off when a wave of nausea and dizziness hit her. She braced herself with her arms, and Mon El rushed to her, making sure to keep her steady. 

Kara knew after that that there was no way Mon El would allow her to not show him, so she sighed as she started rolling up her pant leg. She closed her eyes as she did so, partially because of the pain, but there was another reason too. Truthfully, she hadn't even looked at the gash on her leg, and she didn't want to. Kara hated the sight of her own blood. It made her feel too weak, too _human_. 

She opened her eyes and looked at her wound when she heard Mon El gasp. The cut was right above her knee, and the whole area was red and swollen. Not only that, but there were green veins running along her entire leg emanating from the cut, which was also glowing faintly green. 

"What—" she started, but Mon El cut her off. 

"You still have Kryptonite in you."

Kara looked up at him, her eyes wide, but he couldn't tear his gaze away from her leg. "The veins," he continued. "Some of the Kryptonite must have broken off in the cut."

Kara couldn't help the rush of fear that she felt. This was much worse than she thought. 

"I'm... I'm gonna go get Alex." Mon El told her, and he was almost out of the room before she stopped him. 

"Wait," she called. He stopped immediately, turning on his heel to face her. She could tell that she shocked him from his bewildered expression. "You can't tell Alex. She'll have me sidelined for sure."

"Kara," Mon El said, as he started walking back into the medbay. "You can't be serious. You need that taken out right now, and Alex is the best qualified. Of course you'll be sidelined. You're injured!"

"I have to be out there protecting people," Kara shot back. She was starting to get angry now. Why couldn't he just respect her wishes? Deep in her gut, she knew that it was because despite the mess they were in, he still cared about her way more than he should, but she didn't want to admit that to herself. It would only make things worse.

"Reign is out there, and she's plotting her next move. She's finding the other Worldkillers. I'm not going to be sitting under some sunlamp when she find them."

Mon El stayed quiet for a moment, searching her eyes. Kara broke eye contact, looking at her hands instead. His eyes followed hers and she knew that he was looking at the way they were trembling. 

"So what do you want to do?" he asked her quietly. "You need to get that out of you."

Kara honestly didn't know. There was no way she was going to let Alex know. If Alex found out, she wouldn't let her back in the field until Christmas. An idea popped in her head, but she tried her best to ignore it, searching for any other possibility. When she couldn't think of anything else, she sighed, reaching over to the table next to the bed she was sitting on and grabbing a pair of tweezers. "Take it out, then."

Mon El's eyes got wide, and his jaw dropped a little before he gathered himself. He took the tweezers from her hand, but she could see that he was going to try to fight her on this. "Me?" he asked, sounding genuinely surprised. "I wouldn't say I'm the best qualified for this."

"Well... you're not," Kara responded, and she couldn't help but chuckle when she saw Mon El smirk. At this point, she was resigned to the idea. It wasn't ideal, but it could have been worse. "But Alex and J'onn can't know, and WInn gets queasy around blood, so you're the only one left."

He still looked unsure of himself, so she continued. "I trust you, Mon El."

That seemed to be all of the motivation that he needed, and she felt something crack in her chest at his look when she told him that. He moved closer to her, leaning over her leg. "This... This is a bad idea."

She thought about it for a second. "Probably."

"It's going to hurt," he warned her, poising the tweezers over her wound. Kara nodded at him and closed her eyes. 

They only stayed closed for a moment before they shot open, the pain from Mon El inserting the tweezers into her wound making her gasp. She gripped his shoulder tight, crushing it under her fingertips, and in that moment, she was thankful it wasn't Alex. She surely would have broken her sister's bones. The pain was so much worse than before, and it was everywhere. She groaned between her gritted teeth, trying her hardest not to make too much noise. 

"I've almost got it," Mon El told her, and she could hear him panicking a bit. 

"Hurry up," she whispered back to him, her voice laced with pain. 

"Okay got it. Got it."

Kara let out a sigh of relief, trying to steady her ragged breaths. He held the tweezers up to her, showing her the small piece of Kryptonite. It was about the size of a grain of rice, and it was covered in her blood. She looked away from it quickly. 

"Where are the bandages?" Mon El asked while he disposed of the Kryptonite. "Top shelf," she told him, pointing to a cabinet full of medical supplies. She could feel the dizziness starting to fade, and she was thankful for that. 

Mon El came back to her and started wrapping her leg as best as he could. She could tell that he didn't totally know what he was doing, but he tried his best, securing the bandage behind her thigh. 

"Thank you," she said quietly, and she forced herself not to look up at him while she said it. 

He didn't respond, but she could feel his eyes on her. After a few moments of silence, he spoke up. 

"Hey," he started softly, and something in his tone made her look up, despite her best efforts not to. "I get it. I really do. Sitting out when you know you can do something to help... It's hard. But you're no help to anyone if you're not at a hundred percent. You're just risking yourself."

He searched her eyes, and she knew he was trying to gauge her reaction. She tried her hardest not to give anything away. 

"We need you," he continued, and something in his tone reminded her of how they used to be before the lead poisoning. Before everything got complicated. "The world needs you, and if you go out there, and try to fight Reign when you're not at your best... It may not end well."

Kara looked down, not wanting to continue looking at him. He started walking out of the med bay, but he stopped himself.

"Look, I know you're worried that Reign is going to strike while you're healing, but... Your well-being is important... And there are a lot of people here who need you. So just... Be safe."

He smiled a bit at her, and started to leave again. She thought about his words for a minute before speaking. 

"Hey, Mon El," she called, and he turned around immediately. "Can you get Alex for me, please? And J'onn? They... They should know."

Mon El smiled at her, a genuine smile, and she couldn't help herself from smiling back at him. He nodded once before leaving the room, leaving Kara alone with her thoughts.

Once he left, Kara let out a breath. She looked up at the ceiling, thinking about all that had happened. Between her recent coma and this incident, she was feeling a lot weaker than she had in a while. But maybe, she thought, maybe being weak is what makes you strong in the end.

**Author's Note:**

> [I am also on Tumblr under the same name, thoughtsfromaclutteredbrain]


End file.
